Mika Viljanmaa, who works as Development Manager in Metso’s Järvenpää unit, has been awarded the prestigious 2012 Marcus Wallenberg Prize for his work on metal belt calendering in paper and board making. Viljanmaa will receive the prize at a ceremony in Stockholm on October 1.According to the Board of the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, “The 2012 Marcus Wallenberg Prize has been awarded to Mika Severi Viljanmaa for his ground-breaking development of metal belt calendering technology resulting in better paper print surfaces with less fiber materials and higher production efficiency”.Furthermore, the invention also paves the way for applications in other paper machine sections with the opportunity of becoming a wider platform technology expected to substantially enhance production efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability of paper and board making.Metal belt technology improves quality and efficiency, with less raw materials and energyMetal belt technology has made a major breakthrough as a revolutionary new calendering concept for papermaking. Calendering is done to improve the paper surface and thus print quality. Compared with conventional calendering, advanced long nip metal belt calendering technology enables manufacturing of paper and board with better surface properties at a desired level of stiffness and bulk, but with three to ten percent less fiber raw material; in addition it decreases energy consumption and yields higher production efficiency.It is also suitable for low-cost fibers such as recycled fibers and thus enables development of new cost-competitive paper and board products. The new concept is compact, making it ideal for rebuilds to increase capacity by removing existing production bottlenecks such as yankee dryers or wet stacks.